Thursday, September 19, 2013

The Volunteer Driver

There have been two Facebook pages that claim to want to help the cats at the "high kill" shelter. One I call "The Sane People" and the other I call "The Crazy Doom and Gloom People". I've written many times about the over-the-top Crazies, so won't go into again now. But when an urgent plea came out on The Sane People's Facebook page that a volunteer driver was needed to take SIX cats from the high kill shelter and drive them about 45 minutes to a No-Kill facility - well, you could practically hear the crickets from "The Crazy's usual Doom and Gloom Page". One kind person on The Sane page was going to take time off work to help the cats!

All those whiners and complainers said NOTHING when an opportunity came to help 6 cats get out of the shelter. Furious and too busy to really make time to do it, I decided to do the simple drive myself....

The staff at the "high kill" shelter had picked out the cats that had been there the longest. They were permitted to choose 3 kittens and 3 adult cats. But when it came time to choose the last adult, they had a problem. They had already chosen a black cat to be saved, but there was another VERY sweet girl that should go too - problem was....she was black too.

The choice? Pick a 2nd black cat that had been in a tiny metal cage for TWO MONTHS through illness, euthanasia days and heat or a VERY DEPRESSED dilute calico who had been through all the same things, but one week less time.

At the risk of the no-kill shelter not rescuing again because they ended up with two black cats (and two black kittens too) that don't get adopted quickly, with a heavy heart, I chose the depressed dilute calico.

This was the little girl I left behind:

You could see how I was torn? She's so sweet and has been through so much. She needs to be rescued. Badly.

I won't sleep tonight thinking about her.

When I arrived at the humane society that offered to help these 6 cats, I was greeted with open arms and they seemed happy to see the little group. I was expecting criticism that perhaps the kittens that were chosen were just a little too big, but that wasn't the case. They oooo'd and aaaah'd at how cute everybody was.

The cats were given HUGE cages with comfy blankets and "perches" to sit up high. I watched the big black boy that we rescued stretch his legs after more than 2 months in a tiny, metal cage. All I could think about was the little black girl that I left behind at the "high kill" shelter and wished she could've gone too.

She would've liked it there.
(AN UPDATE: The little black girl in the video has been rescued!)

Oh my gosh, the last line made my day, that she was rescued too, not forgotten, the black girl. This post made me cry. Thank you for doing that drive and saving those six and letting people know about that black girl who had been through so much.

glad you stepped up to help. as much as I love rescue, I am so glad I don't have to "choose" who to save. and am VERY glad the little girl was saved too....I wouldn't have slept much either (even knowing there isn't much I can do from Ohio)